Higher Ed and K-12 partnerships with Mary Budzilowicz and Lauren Benfield

Welcome to Episode 79 of the Think UDL podcast: Higher Ed and K-12 Partnerships with Mary Budzilowicz and Lauren Benfield. Mary Budzilowicz is the Director of the Center for Universal Design for Learning Technology and Resources at Cabrini University and Lauren Benfield is a Project Consultant in the Office of Professional Learning of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Pennsylvania. I usually interview just one person each episode, but today I am very glad to have representatives of both sides of this UDL partnership. My guests and I are specifically going to talk about the incredible work that Cabrini University and Montgomery County schools have forged in recent years to link UDL in their Higher Ed and teacher education programs with K-12 implementation by creating professional learning communities and operationalizing UDL in their local schools. This episode is chock full of resources that Mary and Lauren and their team have meticulously created and gathered over the past several years, so please be sure to check those out on the episode 79 webpage where you’ll see padlets, wakelets, curated resources, and original videos, infographics, and webpages to jump start your partnerships or perhaps start your own thinking about a UDL center on your campus! During our conversation, at one point Lauren mentions the 2018-2019 school year when the membership exploded with more and more attendees but was then interrupted by the pandemic. After our taping she corrected that to the 2019-2020 school year, and you’ll just have to stay tuned to hear how they handled, and even expanded, after that interruption! They are so creative and have so much to share! Thank you for listening and a special thank you to the folks at the UDLHE Network for their financial support of the Think UDL podcast!